Appendix EGeographic Distribution of Army Strength
in Overseas Theaters--Early December 1942

Statistical summaries for Army overseas strength
a year after Pearl Harbor are found in a number
of diverse sources, published and unpublished.
There are certain discrepancies in strength
figures and even in identity and number of
units cited in the various sources used as
a result partly of differences in time of reporting--varying
from a few days to a few weeks--and partly of
varying statistical bases of counting and reporting.
Wherever possible, these data have been checked
against one another and reconciled.

The strength figures in each of the following
tables are taken from the OPD Weekly Status
Map of 3 December 1942. Figures in the monthly
Strength of the Army Reports for 30 November
1942 correspond roughly with the 3 December
Status Map figures. Figures in the OPD Weekly
Status Maps include ground service with ground
troops and air service with air troops. The
OPD Weekly Status Maps do not necessarily correspond
with other statistical records kept in the
field or in Washington during the war, but
they did provide the War Department with its
most reliable detailed contemporary summary
of over-all Army deployment for planning purposes.
Rough as their statistics are, they still represent
one of the most valuable sources available
on total deployment, area by area, of personnel
present, en route, and projected. The post-1945
reports of the Strength of the Army, issued
by Office, TAG, Strength Accounting Branch,
as part of its STM-30 series, contain revised
and official monthly summaries on actual Army
strength and ,deployment in theaters of operations
and major commands during the war years.

The number and identity of divisions are
taken from: (1) Directory of the Army
of the U.S. Outside Continental Limits of the
U.S. as of 7 December 1942; and (2)
Combat
Chronicle, An Outline History of U.S. Army
Divisions, prepared by the Order of Battle
Section, OCMH.

2.
Certain divisions and combat groups
were not complete For the shipment of divisions
overseas in 1942, see
Appendix F, below. The
number of air combat groups overseas, a year
after Pearl Harbor, varies in different compilations.
The difficulties of arriving at an exact figure
for the first week in December 1942 are increased
by the necessity of adding incomplete groups,
converting lists of squadrons to the equivalent
number of groups or parts of groups, and taking
into account at least one group in transit
to the United States. The figure 66--used here--is
based on the AAF Statistical Digest total for 30 November 1942.

3.
The strength figures for the ETO
are only estimated in the Weekly Status Map
of 3 December, since there was some confusion
and lag in reporting units en route from the
British Isles to North Africa.